Do you worry that the new rims weigh more and might affect your FE?

 

Looks good. Personally, I don't see any merit in buying myself aftermarket wheels only in 17", that is too close to TCH stock, especially when that is standard on the SE. I'm going at least 18" once I gather up enough money.

 

My "other car" has low profile tires, and it's easy to scratch the rims on curbs, plus the ride harshness goes up fast. (Holy crap, I'm turning into an old man.)

 

I wish I had a nickle for everyone I know with low profile rims who had to replace one just because they hit a chuck hole.
It seems those things are easy to dent even with minor road defects.
J

 

Pretty nice! Do let us know how your fuel economy goes with these or if discover anything new about the TCH and larger wheels.

 

To each his own. I didn't want to compromise the ride too much, and I've always found that 17" rims are a good sweet spot in ride quality vs. handling in a mid-size coupe or sedan. Plus the rims I chose are already pretty unusual (for a TCH anyway). These are just enough different to say "not your regular TCH" but not so much as to look silly. A year ago I would have laughed in your face if you even suggested that I'd ever one day own a CAMRY....LOL....but this model is pretty slick, and the rims are just right in my mind!!

 

Actually I'm counting on the Florida weather right now being our version of your 15% winter loss. It's been 95 frickin' degrees lately, especially in the afternoons on the way home!!! But I still have been creeping up towards 40MPG AVERAGE. Just fueled up today and got 39.0 MPG over 647 miles.

Plus I now do another thing that I never thought I would do, and that's go exactly at the speed limit. It's become inexpensive entertainment to watch people buzz past me, sometimes going so fast! Are they really that important? LOL The 40MPG license plate tag is a challenge to me (which it looks like I'll meet once the car gets fully broken in), and a reminder to the folks around me who wonder why there is a petrochemical hole in their wallets...

 

The old rim-tire combo weighed out at 46.5 pounds each. The new combination is within half a pound of that (lighter actually), so I don't think that's an issue. Tires are the same width so that's not an issue. The only thing I wonder is if the overall drag coefficient is reduced with the rims for some reason.

I do know that with my last car (an '02 4 cyl supercharged Mercedes with MPG computer), whenver I replaced the tires the MPG would initially drop about 2MPG average (from 29 to 27) initially and then work it's way back up to 29 over a couple thousand miles. There's a slightly off-topic data point for you, but related in a roundabout sense.

Jeez sometimes it sucks being an engineer/scientist. Forgive my geekness.